Those Weenies Aren't Going to Roast Themselves...

Here I am. Back on track. My mind is thinking creatively again. My soul is living happily again. My heart is loving again. There are very few things about my life that are not ideal at this point in time. A BFF too far away. No mountains to speak to my soul. But I have things back that I haven’t felt in a long time. Creativity. Love. Happiness. Soon my life will feel whole again. For two days anyway. When the world’s best friend on the planet comes to visit me. She’ll only visit the plains of the midwest for but a moment. In that moment we will laugh. We may cry. We will spend time with people who love us. We will roast weenies at a small town Halloween celebration. We may trick or treat. We will be completely content and happy watching our dogs be reunited. We will understand how they feel. We’ll go to Scheel’s and look at the giant poster of me that hangs from the ceiling in my ski shop. We’ll probably laugh about that a little bit. We’ll talk about how nice my supervisors are. We’ll talk about how much they appreciate me and educate me. We’ll talk about how changing jobs was the best thing I ever did. Even if there aren’t mountains here. Even if my best friend and Moab are really far away and personal visits are too terribly infrequent. We’ll talk about how I did what had to be done. We’ll stay up way too late. We’ll wake up early because “those weenies aren’t gonna roast themselves”. Who knows, we could drive a combine. Or a tractor. It’s hard to say.

Work=WOW!

Today was Thursday. My day off. So why, you ask, would I think about work all day? Because Wednesday was AWESOME!!! Beneath a giant poster with my face on it I met with the corporate line leader of Alpine and Nordic skis for all of Scheel's. The primary purpose of the visit was for him to teach me the things I need to know to be a successful shop manager. The secondary purpose of the visit was for him to evaluate my shops thus far. It's pretty typical to achieve the rating of "meeting or exceeding Scheel's standards". I guess that happens most of the time. There's only one rating above "meeting or exceeding"...it's "Best of the Best". I guess that doesn't happen most of the time. So you must be wondering, "what evaluation did my two ski shops receive?" Yeah, you guessed it...BEST OF THE BEST! For both shops. No big. I rock. And I finally work for people who appreciate and recognize that. And for people who encourage the development of my skills because they are as interested in my success as I am. It's great. So much different than....well, you know.

On another work note: Sunday I'm headed to Fargo, North Dakota for my second Scheel's University. It's three days of training. Intense. Hands-on. Fun. So. Much. Info! The first one I went to was at the end of September in Souix Falls, South Dakota. It was the Ski/Snowboard/Hockey University. Needless to say I learned the most about hockey there. Everything else was pretty much old hat for me. :-) This time I'll be in Fargo for two and a half days learning about all of the exercise equipment and products that we sell. I'll get to use them all. This is how training should be! Training ends Wednesday at noon. I'll get home Wednesday night. Hopefully I'll manage to get my puppy home that night. I'll be missing him like crazy by then. Thursday I have a day off to recoup. I'll rest up from the travels. Most importantly, I'll clean and pretty up my apartment because MY BFF and MOLLY ARE COMING TO VISIT KENAI and I ON FRIDAY!!! Best day EVA!

things that have happened since then

first, there was one hell of a going away party

then there was a weepies concert of a lifetime

after that there was breakfast with the krankys.

later we visited milts and moab

and eventually saw the best parts of colorado

then we partied with the best people in colorado...and the weepies, of course

after the sad goodbye i made my way across the plains

the next day, my first day on the new job, looked like this

Kenai and I spent a lot of time running...and getting our feet wet

this was the taste of my birthday courtesy of my BFF

and this was the company for my birthday, my favorite little dude in his choo choo hat

then there was the day after my birthday...better late than never, i suppose

on most of my days off of work i found myself on bike rides like this one

and then my niece got married to spencer and gave these two cause to boogie together, for that i am thankful

a few other things happened too that weren't documented in photos:

i went to south dakota

i moved into a basement apartment in coralville

i have been using a sewing machine for the past three days trying to sew my own curtains...i'll keep you posted on that one

i'm going to north dakota next week

my dog has a serious problem with his ears and it's making me crazy!

and my BFF and her dog are coming to visit me in 10 (almost 9) days!!!! Best news ever. I. CAN'T. WAIT.